


Golden Memories

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: YoI Ships Bingo [45]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Background Otayuri, Background Viktuuri - Freeform, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13136700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: One Russian Nationals was a perfect night for Yakov.  Another Russian Nationals just might be even better.





	Golden Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Written for YOI XMas Week Day 22: Ghosts of Christmas Past. It's not exactly *Christmas* but the intent is there and if you don't like it go join the War on Christmas. ;-)
> 
> Written for YOI Ship Bingo  
> Square: Yakov/Lilia  
> [Prompt: ](https://hellsdemonictrinity.tumblr.com/post/160523410875/angstfluff-prompt-list) "You look amazing tonight."

For a skater, Yakov was old. Ancient. He was the oldest competitor in Soviet Nationals by over two years. He really should have retired, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not yet. After this year, he’d promised himself, his doctors, his coach, and Lilia. One more Olympics – he was still good enough to make it, and had a better shot at the podium than almost anyone else in the Soviet Union. There was a kid, an up-and-comer, who would probably be the other one selected to the team, but the kid had a problem with pressure and nowhere was there more pressure than at the Olympics. Yakov thrived under pressure. The crazier his life, the better he got.

Tonight was a big deal. If he won, his coach had to shut up about him having lost his edge. Even if he took silver, his coach couldn’t come up with an argument for them to pick someone else for the second slot on the Soviet team – either the kid had the first slot, or the kid had crumbled under this pressure and couldn’t be counted on for the Olympics yet.

Lilia watched carefully as the doctors got Yakov ready. His bad knee was hurting him with the cold weather, not that he would ever let a little pain stop him from delivering a brilliant performance. Not with Lilia finally finding the opportunity to come watch him. It was the first time she’d had the stars align so that her night off from performing in The Nutcracker lined up with the free skate of the men’s singles competition.

Once the doctors were done wrapping and icing and drugging his knee, Yakov got dressed. Lilia straightened the collar and made sure everything was just so, and then kissed him lightly so as not to mess up the stage makeup. “You look amazing tonight.”

“Thanks to you, my dear.” Yakov checked the mirror. He did look good – better than usual, which he chalked up to Lilia’s influence and assistance.

As promised, he sparkled under the spotlight, setting the ice on fire with his performance to Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. There was no surprise when they awarded him the gold.

After the ceremony, that was the real surprise. When Lilia took the gold medal off him to put away, Yakov took her hand. “I shouldn’t be the only one with new gold tonight. Marry me, Lilia? I’ll be done skating after the Olympics, I can move to Moscow to teach skating…”

Lilia squeezed his hands hard. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. Do you have a ring?”

“I do. Here.” Yakov pulled the box out of the pocket of his jacket. “Svetlana helped me figure out the size.”

“No wonder she’s been so smug and teasing lately. She did know something I didn’t know.” Lilia held out her hand for Yakov to put the ring on. “You’re a good man, Yakusha. I will be delighted to marry you.”

 

So many of his memories of Lilia had been bittersweet since the divorce. The memory of his last gold medal, the only time Lilia was able to watch him skate in competition – she had hoped to come to the Olympics, but had been prevented by her dance responsibilities – that memory remained as good as always, even through all the bitterness. It had been a perfect night, a magical night. Whether Lilia remembered it the same way, he’d never asked since the divorce. That would be the one thing that could destroy the joy the memory brought him.

Thanks to Yuri, things with Lilia had gotten much better. Now Yuri was running off after some boy, another skater. In Yakov’s opinion, Otabek should have been the one to earn bronze, but it was up to Otabek’s coach to file the inquiry, as he’d told Yuri when the boy had asked, outraged on behalf of his new friend. “If that’s a friend, I’ll eat my hat.”

“Yuri’s fifteen and has never had anyone ask him to be his friend,” Lilia said. “He probably doesn’t have any idea what’s going on. I spoke to Otabek this morning after practice. He approached him only for friendship. He was surprised to hear that you and I believe Yuri has a crush on him.”

“Huh. Well, he has to grow up sometime. At least tell me Otabek is aware of his own feelings?”

Lilia smiled. “He’s not Katsuki. He’s aware.”

“I can’t believe Viktor’s engaged. I hope Katsuki knows what he’s getting into. That is not going to be an easy marriage, not with Viktor’s moodiness.”

Lilia smiled and shook her head as she reached for Yakov’s hand. “You say that like there’s such a thing as an easy marriage. Katsuki grew up with Minako – he won’t let Vitya get away with crap, and the way Vitya looks at him… I was surprised at the engagement, more surprised that I heard it from Yuri instead of reading about it in the newspapers, but I believe in them.”

“They wouldn’t be the first couple to take a good thing and find a way to ruin it.”

“No. They wouldn’t.” Lilia squeezed Yakov’s hand. “Are you going to take Katsuki, if he doesn’t retire after this after all?”

Yakov jumped. “Why would I take Katsuki? He’s not even Russian!”

“For Vitya. I have no idea how that’s going to work if Vitya decides to continue coaching Yuuri as well as skating, but I do know that if Vitya’s coming back to the ice, it will be with you, and he won’t come back to Saint Petersburg without Yuuri no matter what Yuuri does about retiring.”

Yakov snorted. “I’m pretty sure you’ve put more thought into how this is going to work than Vitya has.”

“Oh, likely, but before too much longer they’ll have to figure out something. If Vitya’s serious about Russian Nationals – and I have no doubt that he means it, I only question whether he’ll be able to beat Georgi and Yuri.”

“Yuri? You think there’s a chance that out of skating for nine months Vitya can beat Yuri?”

“Judging is subjective. Vitya is Viktor Nikiforov, Russia’s Living Legend, and the tendency will be to overscore. Yuri is fifteen and coming off a Grand Prix Final gold. The judges may well underscore him, and he’s likely to regain some of the arrogance he had last year when he had no competition, since neither Katsuki nor Leroy will be competing.”

“True.” Yakov sighed. He had not thought about that. “If Vitya intends to coach Katsuki, he may not let me take him.”

“No, and you can’t solve their first hurdle. Katsuki’s coach won’t be able to go to his Nationals. You certainly can’t, not with Georgi and Yuri to think of as well.”

“That’s for them to figure out. Once Katsuki’s in Saint Petersburg… we’ll see how things go. I suppose.” He certainly couldn’t argue that Vitya wasn’t a good coach for Katsuki, but would that stand up to working around his own training?

 

Yuri did get cocky, and Viktor wasn’t as unprepared as Yakov and Yuri had expected. Viktor managed to take yet another gold medal, while Yuri and Georgi took second and third. Lilia stood beside him at the medal ceremony with a proud smile. “That’s three medals for you, Yakov. And you’re not done yet.”

“I’m not?”

“Not unless you want to be.”

Lilia held out a box, which Yakov took with trembling fingers. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes. It is.” Lilia kissed his cheek. “Even with everything we’ve been through, the night you first gave me mine has always been one of the best memories of my life. I’m hoping this night will be another.”


End file.
